Today - Tuesday, March 31, 2015

SGDJ tracks an index of 36 U.S. and Canada listed companies with market values below $250 million, to remove the risk that comes with very early stage exploration firms.

“The Index also weights companies differently by using two factors – revenue growth and price momentum – to emphasize companies with stronger growth potential. These factors have historically been strong predictors of long-term stock performance in the junior gold mining sector,” said John Ciampaglia, head of ETFs at Sprott, in a press release.

UTi Worldwide (NASDAQ:UTIW) -12.9% AH after reporting a larger than expected FQ4 loss on a 10% Y/Y decline in revenue as well as one-time expenses related to restructuring efforts.

UTIW also lowers its EBITDA guidance for the year ending January 2016 to $125M-$150M from its previous projection of $190M-$210M, reflecting expectations for currency exchange rates, and a reduced outlook for its freight forwarding business as it executes on its new strategy.

With Etsy selling 13.3M new shares through the IPO, the company's gross proceeds stand to total $186M-$213M. Existing holders are initially selling 3.3M shares, and could sell another 2.5M if a greenshoe option is picked up.

Accel Partners and other entities associated with VC Jim Breyer are selling 1.53M shares, thus lowering their stake to 25% from 30%. Union Square Ventures affiliates are selling 861K shares (cutting their stake to 12.6% from 15.2%), Index Ventures affiliates are selling 724K (cutting their stake to 12.8% from 15.6%). and Acton Capital affiliates are selling 222K (cutting their stake to 3.3% from 3.9%).

In validating the seven-year-old auction, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says the Arctic “is an important component of the administration’s national energy strategy."

The move removes a critical hurdle for Shell to return to the area north of Alaska this summer but is far from the final regulatory step, as the company still must secure individual drilling permits and win the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of its broad exploration plan.

The move brings some completion to the network's deal last year to take control of Eurosport International, which didn't include the French operation.

With consolidation complete, Discovery CEO David Zaslav says he expects the Eurosport group to reach 1M subscribers in the next two years (from its current 200K), to the tune of an extra $100M in revenues.

It's another sports move for Discovery, which has been moving further into international sports in search of growth "as things taper here in the U.S.," Zaslav says. Eurosport International operates six all-sports pay channels.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) says its board approved salary increases for top executives, including CEO John Watson and outgoing Vice Chairman and Executive VP George Kirkland.

Watson, who has been CEO since 2010 and is a 35-year veteran of the company, will receive a $27.5K increase to raise his base salary to $1.9M, while Kirkland, who CVX says will retire effective June 15, an additional $25K to lift his base salary to $1.6M.

James Johnson, who joined CVX in 1981, will replace Kirkland as executive VP for upstream operations.

CVX's 2014 profit fell 10% Y/Y on a 7.4% decline in revenue, and shares have dropped nearly 12% over the past 12 months.

Despite objections from competing lender Salus Capital Partners, Judge Brendan Shannon said Standard General offered more money (about $160M) and was the only bidder with the “added and terribly important benefit of saving more than 7,000 jobs and preserving a century-old American retailing icon."

The 1,743 stores represent a substantial slimming from the Shack's overwhelming 4,000 stores; Standard General intends to operate the remaining stores along with Sprint (NYSE:S).

Salus has first claim on RadioShack's IP, including trademark, patents and customer lists.

The sale will likely leave nothing (or very little) for any unsecured creditors. The firm is estimated to owe them about $500M.